Colour is extremely significant in the designers’ world. Come to think of it, everyone mentions how important “Solving the user’s problem” is in the UIUX world, and it seem like aesthetics isn’t so much important, but it does matter too. Imagine a world where all apps and websites are in greyscale (aka black and white, neutral colours, the display colour of grandpa’s old Tv).
Don’t get me wrong, there are brands that solely use neutral colours and still ooze out loads of beauty, freshness and authority. Neutral colours used together can either create an enthralling and exquisite look or an unbiased look.
In this article, we are going to briefly look into the world of colours and gain some insights on colours.
Color Wheel (aka Color circle)
This is simply an abstract illustrative system of colour hues around a circle. It is known as the basis of colours because it shows how colours are related to each other. which shows the relationships between primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.
There are two major types of colour wheels:
- RYB which simply means Red Yellow Blue.
This is the commonly simplified version of the primary colors of pigment — Magenta, Yellow, and Cyan. It is known as the artist colours because it helps with combining paint colours. This is a subtractive color model — a blend of pigments, inks, paints, or dyes.
It’s called a subtractive model because every time a new colour is added, the mixture reflects less light and becomes black when all colours are combined.
- RGB which is Red Green Blue.
This is referred to as mixing light and is for digital use. The RGB is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors (Wikipedia).
It is called an additive model because when adding colours, the mixture gets lighter and becomes white when all colors are combined.
Types of Colours.
- Primary colours- are the colours that cannot be created from combining/mixing other colours. You can call them the foundation on which other colours are formed. In the RYB model (subtractive), these colours are RED, YELLOW and BLUE (or magenta, yellow and cyan to be specific) while in the RGB model (additive), they are RED, GREEN and BLUE.
2. Secondary colours- These are born from the combination of two colours. In the subtractive color model, they are green, orange, and purple, while in the additive color model, they are cyan, magenta, and yellow (Epic! right?).
3. Tertiary Colours — These are colours gotten from combining a primary colour and a secondary colour. Further mixing creates more complex and intriguing colors, called Quaternary.
Warm and Cool Colours
The colour wheel can also be divided based on the temperature of the colour (I know that sounds weird). According to psychology, these colours also evoke certain feelings based on their temperature.
- Warm colours: These are colours that surround the feel of the sun. Imagine the sunset! The rays of the setting orange and yellow sun giving a warm orange tinge to the sky. Those colours alongside their tints and shadows make up the warm colours. I mean colours like Orange, Red and yellow.
These colours are associated with LOVE, FIRE, PASSION and EMOTION
2. Cool Colours: As the name implies, these colours are cool. Think of the cold and cool weather — the colours that cross your mind when you think of water and nature… These colours are Blue, Green and Purple.
The signify CALMNESS, RELAXATION, LOYALTY AND TRUST. I bet this is why a lot of brands use these colours.
Neutral Colours
These are colours that don’t belong to the clan. They are the subtle colours and they seem to go with everything. Although very enthralling to work with, they can get overshadowed if not used correctly. These colours include BLACK, WHITE, GREY, BROWN and BIEGE (aka the nude colour).
Neutral colors are the most subtle of the bunch, and can easily get overshadowed if not used correctly. They work great for backgrounds and pair fantastically with bright accent colors. Black, white, grey, brown
I think this is enough for one article. In the next article I would explain the Colour harmony, Colour space which embodies the RGB, CMYK, HEX and all those funny codes you see in designs. Till then Ciao ✌👋
